The present invention relates to a tone and picture generator device which can generate tones and visually display a performance scene of the generated tones in three-dimensional pictures.
In the field of electronic musical instruments and the like, it has been conventional to execute an automatic performance, such as an automatic rhythm or bass-chord performance, in accordance with a desired automatic performance pattern. Specifically, for chord-backing and bass parts, chord-backing and bass tones are automatically performed in accordance with predetermined automatic performance patterns on the basis of chords that are sequentially designated by a human player as a music piece progresses. For performance of a drum part, on the other hand, normal and variation patterns are arranged in advance so that an automatic performance can be executed by selecting any of these patterns (styles). The number of the arranged variation pattern is not always one, and in some cases two or more variation patterns are arranged previously. Generally, each of these performance patterns has a length or duration corresponding to one to several measures, and a successive automatic rhythm performance is carried out by repeating any of these previously-arranged performance patterns.
With such a conventional approach, the performance tends to become monotonous because it is based on repetition of the same pattern. To avoid the undesired monotonousness, it has also been customary in the art to previously arrange sub-patterns, such as those called xe2x80x9cfill-inxe2x80x9d, xe2x80x9cbreakxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cad-libxe2x80x9d, so that a performance based on any of these sub-patterns may be inserted temporarily in response to an instruction given by a human operator or player via predetermined switches or the like and then restored to a main pattern performance. The main pattern and sub-patterns are stored in a database, from which they are retrieved for reproduction in response to player""s operation.
FIG. 11 is a block diagram showing exemplary transitions of various performance patterns (styles) in an automatic performance. The performance patterns in the illustrated example include first and second main patterns A and B (i.e., a normal pattern and a variation pattern), and two sets of first and second fill-in patterns corresponding to the main patterns A and B; that is, the two sets are a xe2x80x9cAxe2x86x92Axe2x80x9d fill-in pattern (xe2x80x9cFILL AAxe2x80x9d pattern) to be inserted during performance of the first main pattern A and a xe2x80x9cAxe2x86x92Bxe2x80x9d fill-in pattern (xe2x80x9cFILL ABxe2x80x9d pattern) to be inserted for transition from the first main pattern A to the second main pattern B, and a xe2x80x9cBxe2x86x92Bxe2x80x9d fill-in pattern (xe2x80x9cFILL BBxe2x80x9d pattern) to be inserted during performance of the second main pattern B and a xe2x80x9cBxe2x86x92Axe2x80x9d fill-in pattern (xe2x80x9cFILL BAxe2x80x9d pattern) to be inserted for transition from the second main pattern B to the first main pattern A. The performance patterns of FIG. 11 further include two pairs of intro patterns (xe2x80x9cINTRO Axe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cINTRO Bxe2x80x9d) and ending patterns (xe2x80x9cENDING Axe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cENDING Bxe2x80x9d) corresponding to the two main patterns A and B.
Although not specifically shown in FIG. 11, there are provided two fill-in pattern selecting switches (xe2x80x9cFILL Axe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cFILL Bxe2x80x9d switches) that are activated when one of the patterns (styles) is to be shifted to or replaced by another, two switches (xe2x80x9cENDING Axe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cENDING Bxe2x80x9d switches) for selecting a desired ending pattern, and two other switches (xe2x80x9cINTRO Axe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cINTRO Bxe2x80x9d switches) for selecting a desired one of the intro patterns.
For example, once the xe2x80x9cINTRO Axe2x80x9d switch is activated, the xe2x80x9cINTRO Axe2x80x9d pattern is first performed and then a performance of the first main pattern A is initiated upon termination of the xe2x80x9cINTRO Axe2x80x9d pattern performance. If the xe2x80x9cFILL Axe2x80x9d switch is depressed during the course of the performance of the first main pattern A, the xe2x80x9cFILL AAxe2x80x9d pattern is inserted and then the performance of the first main pattern A is resumed. Then, when the xe2x80x9cFILL Bxe2x80x9d switch is depressed, the xe2x80x9cFILL ABxe2x80x9d pattern is inserted and then the main pattern B is performed. Once the xe2x80x9cENDING Axe2x80x9d switch is depressed, the xe2x80x9cENDING Axe2x80x9d pattern is performed to stop the performance of the entire music piece in question.
Similarly, once the xe2x80x9cINTRO Bxe2x80x9d switch is activated, the xe2x80x9cINTRO Bxe2x80x9d pattern is first performed and then a performance of the second main pattern B is initiated upon termination of the xe2x80x9cINTRO Bxe2x80x9d pattern performance. If the xe2x80x9cFILL Axe2x80x9d switch is depressed during the course of the performance of the second main pattern B, the xe2x80x9cFILL BAxe2x80x9d pattern is inserted and then the first main pattern A is performed. Then, when the xe2x80x9cFILL Bxe2x80x9d switch is depressed, the xe2x80x9cFILL BBxe2x80x9d pattern is inserted and then the second main pattern B is resumed. Once the xe2x80x9cENDING Bxe2x80x9d switch is depressed, the xe2x80x9cENDING Bxe2x80x9d pattern is performed to stop the performance of the entire music piece in question.
In this way, a fill-in pattern is selected, depending on the performance state when any one of the switches is depressed, corresponding to the currently-performed main pattern and destination (shifted-to or replacing) main pattern, and the thus-selected fill-in pattern is inserted. Such fill-in pattern insertion can effectively avoid unwanted monotonous of the music piece performance.
While FIG. 11 shows a case where two main patterns A and B are used, the number of the main patterns is of course not so limited and may be more than two. Further, there have been known various other manners of pattern variations and transitions than the above-mentioned; for example, the fill-in pattern insertion may be applied only to a selected musical instrument of a single performance part.
Among other known types of automatic performance devices than the above-discussed device is one which prestores, as SMF (Standard MIDI File)-format performance information, pitch, sounding-start and muffling-start timing, etc. Of each note contained in a desired music piece and generates tones by sequentially reading out the prestored pieces of the performance information (composition data). In this know automatic performance device, a human player only has to operate performance-start and performance-stop switches.
However, the conventionally-known electronic musical instruments, having functions to execute an automatic accompaniment and automatic performance, could not carry out a visual interaction with the users or players although they could provide an interaction by sound (aural interaction).
Some of the known electronic musical instruments are provided with a display section for visually showing a title of an automatically-performed or automatically-accompanied music piece and/or changing measures and tempo during the performance. Also known is a technique by which each key to be next depressed by the player is visually indicated on the display section. However, so far, there has been proposed or implemented no technique of visually showing a performance itself on the display section, and thus it has been impossible to visually ascertain a scene or situation of the performance.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a tone and picture generator device which can display performance motions, corresponding to a performance style, in synchronism with a music performance, to thereby allow a player to perform while viewing and enjoying performance of various musical instruments.
In order to accomplish the above-mentioned object, the present invention provides a tone and picture generator device which comprises: a tone generator section that generates a tone on the basis of performance information; and a picture generator section that, in synchronism with said performance information, generates picture data illustrating a performance scene of a selected musical instrument or part corresponding to the performance information.
With this arrangement, a current performance scene or situation of a selected musical instrument or voice part can be visually shown on a graphical display unit in synchronism with the performance information or composition data, which allows a player to enjoy interactions, both aural and visual (i.e., by tone and picture), with an instrument using the generator device of the invention.
According to a preferred implementation of the present invention, the tone and picture generator device further comprises a motion component database that stores therein various motion components each including motion information representative of a trajectory of performance motions of a subdivided performance pattern for each musical instrument or performance part, and the generator section reads out, from the motion component database, one of the motion components corresponding to the performance information and generates animated picture data corresponding to the performance information on the basis of information that is created by sequentially joining together the motion components read out from the motion component database.
By virtue of the database storing the motion components, common or same motion components can be used for a plurality of different patterns or music pieces, and any necessary components can be additionally stored in the database whenever necessary. As a consequence, various 3-D animated pictures can be generated with increased efficiency. The use of such 3-D animated picture data allows the users to enjoy more real, stereoscopic animated pictures.
Further, according to the present invention, each of the motion components includes not only the motion information representative of a trajectory of performance motions of a subdivided performance pattern but also a sounded point marker indicative of each tone-generation timing in the motion information. Thus, common motion components can be used for different performance tempos, which thereby permits a significant reduction in the size of the database. Further, using the sounded point marker for synchronization with the tone generator section, the tone and picture can be synchronized with each other with high accuracy.
In addition, the present invention allows a human operator or player to change a xe2x80x9ccharacterxe2x80x9d playing in the performance scene to be displayed and viewpoint of the 3-D animated picture data, so that the human operator can enjoy a variety of 3-D animated pictures and also can cause a model performance to be displayed on a magnified scale.
The tone and picture generator device of the present invention may further comprise a section for modifying the motion information in response to a change in the playing (player-representing) character and/or viewpoint. With this modifying section, common motion information can be used for different player-representing characters and viewpoints, which can even further reduce the size of the database.